After seven months, heres what South Korea can teach us about 5G
SEOUL: Imagine downloading a dozen high-definition films in a matter of seconds, or video-calling fr..
SEOUL: Imagine downloading a dozen high-definition films in a matter of seconds, or video-calling friends or colleagues overseas with almost zero lag.
That is what Singapore and most of the world can expect from next year, when the fifth-generation (5G) cellular network will become available to them.
Advertisement
Advertisement
In South Korea, where the worlds first commercial 5G network was launched in April, life in the fast lane means speeds of more than 700 megabytes per second or more on a 5G phone.
That is compared with, say, 30 to 50 Mbps on a 4G phone in the streets of Seoul.
A speed test shows the difference between a 5G phone and a 4G phone.
In fact, as 5G uses shorter wavelengths called millimetre waves, which can carry a lot of data, the data speeds can potentially be 100 times faster than 4Gs, with almost zero latency, i.e. virtually no lag.
Advertisement
Advertisement
South Korea has shown, however, that there is more to this iteration of the mobile network than just faster surfing.
5G could revolutionise the way content is viewed, speed up the progress of self-driving cars and change lives, as the programme Why It Matters finds out. (Watch the episode here.)
VIDEO POSSIBILITIES GALORE
One of the things early access to 5G has given to Korean software developers is a head start in coming up with applications and services that use the network.
For example, mobile service provider LG U+ is investing 9.8 billion won (S$11.4 million) to create entertainment content that would attract users to 5G services, like the augmented reality (AR) app that allows users to learn K-pop dances from their idols virtually.
“Other than learning K-pop dance steps, you can also do home workouts where you can turn the image 360 degrees to see the exact movement close up,” said the companys AR content team manager Cha Yun-Jae.
“One important characteristic of AR content is that 600 megabytes of data are transferred for a one-minute video, to allow us to enjoy live streaming. 4Gs speed would be too slow for this.”
The faster data speeds mean better support for virtual reality, artificial intelligence (AI) and any real-time content, like another one of South Koreas first made-for-5G apps, the LG U+ Pro Baseball.
Users can watch from different angles, from the home plate to third base, and outfield too.
It not only offers real-time coverage of professional league matches, but also allows fans the freedom to watch from different angles and to zoom in and out on their mobile devices.
“For customers who love baseball, their wish was to watch baseball more realistically, as if theyre the coach,” said Pro Baseball app developer Hwang Gyo-Ja, who added that these individual videos required 60 cameras to be installed in the stadium.
On the 4G network, the service is 10 times slower. “The connection may not be good. It would be difficult to control and play the content smoothly.”
Videos will account for nearly 75 per cent of mobile data traffic in 2024, from about 60 per cent last year, according to telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson.
Ericsson expects video traffic in mobile networks to grow 34 per cent a year up to 2024.
So 5G will open up a world of possibilities for videos on the go, fuelling not only commercial content, but potentially also live streaming for anyone.
YouTuber and gadget reviewer Baek Wuk Hee not only takes about four times faster to upload a video via a 5G phone, but he also can stream to his YouTube channel “with no delay, in (higher) resolution”.
“The speed is amazing,” he said.
A SELF-DRIVING FUTURE
It is not just humans who will benefit from 5G; machines are also about to get smarter.
In the worlds first 5G test bed for self-driving cars — in Hwaseong, about an hours drive from Seoul —360,000 square metres of roads, highways, city outskirts and construction sites have been built to test autonomous vehicles in real road environments.
Hyundai's first autonomous car, powered by 5G to drive people in the purpose-built test bed site.
K-City, as it is called, is rigged up with 5G base stations and cost the government 12.5 billion won to build. And 5Gs connectivity is the game changer that could make self-driving cars more prevalent.
The 4G wireless technology does not have enough capacity or responsiveness to support communication among hundreds of thousands of vehicles all at once, whereas 5G can join the dots in any traffic situation.
“5G technology is the most compatible technology for communicating with vehicles that generate a lot of data and roads that require a lot of data,” said Nam Baek, the chief researcher of K-Citys automated vehicle division.
“For example, theres a fallen item on the road and one car may spot it, but another car may not see it. The car can share that information with the vehicles around it, (to) drive more safely.”
He has been researching intelligent transport systems and autonomous vehicles since 2000. And he believes it will be possible to relay data in less than a millisecond with 5G technology, compared with 50 milliseconds on 4G.
Paraplegic We Park is “very interested in this kind of technology” because it will help people who are paralysed, he said.
But he is unsure about the autonomous vehicle system now, as the technology “has to solve many problems” in reacting to sudden changes in road conditions.
“Maybe when this technology gets better, Ill buy (a driverless car) if I have the money,” he added.
While autonomous car technology is “mature”, said Nam, and the communication infrastructure exists, tRead More – Source